Singer/Songwriter Adam Klein Pays Homage to His New Hometown

Singer/songwriter and troubadour, Adam Klein’s music touches on Americana, rustic country folk, folk-rock and West African Mande music. He performs in a variety of settings – either solo/duo, with his band, Adam Klein & The Wild Fires, or occasionally with his American roots-meets-West-African-roots project under his Peace Corps name in Mali, Lassine Kouyate.
Hailing from Athens, Georgia, he has traveled the world, never staying put in one place for very long, but for now Klein, his wife Judith and two-year-old daughter Elinor call Doraville home.

“My then-girlfriend, now wife and I were looking to be in the same city since we’d been doing some distance and each traveling for a while,” said Klein. “She grew up in Norcross and came back to Atlanta after school to start working as a flutist in the music scene. I had been in Athens so I just moved down to the other end of 316. We found a place in Doraville and are still here. It was just more affordable than Intown or Decatur but in a pretty good location to get to wherever it is we’re going. We like the diversity and of course Buford Highway with its incredible array of international food. Doraville actually has a rich music history. Studio One was located here. Skynyrd recorded “Sweet Home Alabama” there, from what I read, along with a few albums, and the Atlanta Rhythm Section were from Doraville and recorded there, along with .38 Special. My music’s stylistically different, but I wanted to honor the place and my time here with a song, so I wrote ‘Look Out (Do-raville).’ Figured it was time for a follow-up song to ARS’s ‘Doraville’ giving a nod to my new ‘hometown.’ Generally, in my songs, I’m often taking stock of my life, my decisions, and end up waxing nostalgic for things I miss or imagining the allure of paths not taken.”

‘Look Out (Doraville),’ described by Flagpole Magazine’s Gordon Lamb as “a full medicinal dose of rock and roll heal-ing power” is one of 10 tracks on Klein’s newest album Low Flyin’ Planes, recorded by his friend and producer/engineer Bronson Tew at Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, Mississippi. “It features my longtime guitarist Crash Cason, Matt Patton (of Drive-By Truckers) and Stuart Cole (ex-Squirrel Nut Zippers) on bass, Eric Carlton (Jimbo Mathus) on keys, Kell Kellum (Young Valley) on pedal steel, Will McCarley (Fat Pos-sum Records) and Tew on drums, and other fine players. I think it represents a sweet spot for my music – folk rock songs with pathos and yearning, along with a few more rocking tunes for some plain fun, that are richly textured with warmth and color. If you like the production of Lucinda Williams, Mark Knopfler, Jackson Browne and albums in that vein, you might find Low Flyin’ Planes is up your alley,” said Klein.

Making a living completely as a singer/songwriter today is a challenge, says Klein, but being based in Atlanta is good for a number of reasons: “…lots of venues, festivals, a lot of excellent musicians, plenty of bands and singer/songwriters to connect with, and it’s a good location to tour from as you’re in striking distance of anywhere in the south and then either up the Eastern Seaboard, to the Midwest or out toward Texas.” Adam Klein will be appearing Friday, May 3, 8 p.m. at Waller’s Coffee Shop in Decatur for a solo in-the-round with Alabama singer/songwriters Taylor Hollingsworth and Brad Armstrong.

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